Service providers and device manufacturers (e.g., wireless, cellular, etc.) are continually challenged to deliver value and convenience to consumers by, for example, providing compelling network services. Many consumer network services require user authentication for providing user specific content and services. A user is prompted to fill in a username, a password and possibly other information on some dedicated authentication user interface in a client application. When the user has provided all such information, the client application submits it, or a transformation of it, in a secure communication channel over the network to an authentication service. The authentication server verifies the information against an authentication database. If successful, the authentication server returns an access token that can be used to obtain the network services for a predetermined time. This process is a lengthy one because: it takes typically several seconds for the user to fill in the authentication user interface, especially on mobile devices with small or onscreen keyboards; it also takes typically a few seconds to set up a data channel on mobile telephones and then to establish a secure session with the network service due to multiple roundtrips between the client and the server; it takes several hundred milliseconds for the authentication service to locate the user's information in a database that usually consists of millions of users; and it takes several hundred milliseconds for the network service to fulfill the request that is made by the client application just after a successful authentication. The last two components often take extra time when the services or equipment which host the network and authentication services are busy. During this lengthy process, the user's device is less available for performing other user initiated functions, thus wasting processing capacity and bandwidth on the user's device.